You couldn’t have asked for a better day at the Western Australian Golf Club yesterday for the 2021 Crunch&Sip Junior Presentation Day. Teams from different metropolitan clubs dressed up in all colours of the rainbow to represent the Crunch&Sip theme, congratulations to the “Gosnells GC Watermelons” who took out best dressed for their watermelon overload outfits.
There was still golf to be played and won on the day however, it wasn’t all fun and games! Teams from Mount Lawley and Lake Karrinyup shared third place. While, two Gosnells teams made it a 1-2 finish. The winning team featuring Darren Roberts, Lachlan Cunning, Lucas Wan and Kai Scott.
The Junior Presentation Day marks the end of the junior season, which provides us with winners of the 2021 Crunch&Sip Junior Stroke Averages. These awards are given to players who have reduced their stroke average by the greatest amount through playing a minimum of 15 Junior Stroke Average events over a 12 month rolling period. Congratulations to the following winners, as announced last night.
11 & Under Boys – Blake Wager (Gosnells GC) – 91.53
12 – 13 Boys – Ollie Marsh (Royal Fremantle GC) – 75.59
14 – 15 Boys – Joe Buttress (Western Australian Golf Club) – 73.20
16 – 17 Boys – Aldrich Potgieter (Joondalup Country Club) – 69.06
14 & Under Girls – Celine Chen (Joondalup Country Club) – 73.15
15 – 17 Girls – Sheridan Clancy (Lake Karrinyup Country Club) – 70.67
The awards continued with the announcement of the nominees and winners of the 2021 Most Improved Junior Golfers. The Boys award was won by Ty Cleland from the Gosnells Golf Club, following an outstanding season where he finished 3rd at the Rockingham Junior Open, 3rd at the Primary School Championships, 2nd at the Gosnells Men’s Summer Cup (Nett), 2nd at the Cobra Puma Junior Championhips for his age division and became the Gosnells Men’s B Grade Strokeplay Champion.
“Despite not yet turning 12, Ty has become well known at his club as he is always there. He lives and breathes golf and is well known for his short game and in particular his putting. He volunteered his time at a recent Gosnells Junior Gala Day to raise funds for the junior program at Gosnells and is seen by the club as a future leader” Ty’s home club added.
The Girls award was won by another Gosnells young gun in Halia Edwards. At the start of 2021, Halia set herself the goal of reducing her handicap by 10 strokes to 18.0. This was achieved on July 9th when she won the best nett at the Gosnells Junior Open – her current handicap is 15.2. At the beginning of that year, Halia had not played any 18-hole events outside of Gosnells (other than pennants), She has now completed 19 events that were either GolfWA junior events or Club Junior Open events – in addition to Gosnells junior competitions and Crunch and Sip Tour events, which as a 9/10 year is a significant achievement.
The final awards of the night are the Junior Golfers of the Year, awarded the Keith Barker Medal. Joondalup’s Aldrich Potgieter took out the Boys award following a breakout year. Aldrich is always a consistent performer no matter the level of event he competes in and showed this across the year with his impressive stroke average and tournament results such as winning the WA Amateur Championship and coming runner up in the Australian Boys’ Amateur Championship.
Aldrich has had many notable results this year including winning the Men’s State Amateur, Cobra Puma Junior Championship, the WA Golf Club Open, Melville Glades Junior, Nedlands Junior Masters, Royal Perth Junior and coming Runner up at the Australian Junior Open.
Meanwhile, the Girls Junior Golfer of the Year award could not be split, which saw joint winners being named as Joondalup’s Amie Phobubpa and Lake Karrinyup’s Sheridan Clancy.
Amie has had an impressive year winning the 2021 Western Australian Amateur championship and the Keperra Winter Classic Gross. Amie was also nett winner and overall 4th at the South Pacific championships and has consistently put in several great performances in local Ivy Temperley events throughout the season. Amie is also part of the high-performance tier athlete program. Amie is ranked 5th in the National Junior Order of Merit and 6th in the National Women’s Order of Merit.
Sheridan has also had an incredibly impressive year having been selected in the State Schoolgirls team, the State Girls team and the State squad. Sheridan is also part of the GolfWA high-performance tier athlete program. She was the Lake Karrinyup CC Silver winner and club champion and won many events this year including the Cottesloe Silver, Mosman Park Junior Open, Drummond 54-hole Junior Classic, WA Junior Amateur Championship, WA Amateur Foursomes (with Kathryn Norris) and the U-16 girls Australian Junior Championship.
